GPDA statement ‘well considered and planned’ – Wurz

Grand Prix Drivers’ Association chairman Alexander Wurz has revealed that the open letter released on Wednesday was not a ‘knee-jerk’ reaction to the almost-farcical qualifying session seen during the Australian Grand Prix last weekend and had been on the cards for a while.

The former Benetton, McLaren and Williams Formula 1 racer said the statement requesting an overhaul of the way rules are made was discussed once more during a meeting in Australia, with all of the drivers being in favour of such a statement.

“Drivers are the real stars and protagonists of our sport and in response to some heated discussions by our fans and also inside the paddock, the drivers felt it is time to express their collective opinion,” said Wurz. “This was not a knee-jerk reaction to the qualifying experiment.

“This statement was well-considered and planned between all drivers for quite a while now and discussed in Melbourne again during the special drivers’ briefing the GPDA held.

“Since the GPDA’s existence in the 1960s we operate by majority vote, which works very well. In this case, it was an extremely clear vote regarding the desire to express our opinion.”

Wurz reiterated the fact about some of the current rules and regulations, especially some of the recently added or amended ones, are not fit to purpose, with outsiders especially feeling that what happens behind the scenes with the rulemaking is at times appearing to almost disorganised.

“It is the majority opinion of the drivers, in order to make our sport fit for the future and next generations, the business model and the way F1 is run needs to be addressed and redefined, and followed by a clear road map or masterplan,” added Wurz.

“We are not convinced that individual updates to sporting or technical rules are the solution. We believe every acting individual of the stakeholders wants the best for the sport.

“However, the process of how the stakeholders decide over the sport doesn’t seem to work too well right now when one observes it from the outside.”